


Chance Encounters

by Too_Many_Seeds



Category: Far Cry 5
Genre: F/M, Game-Typical themes, Pre-game AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-04
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2020-01-04 17:52:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18348689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Too_Many_Seeds/pseuds/Too_Many_Seeds
Summary: On the third day of her hike, Rook realised she was being watched. It was also on the third day that she encountered Jacob Seed.





	Chance Encounters

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Pre-Game, hints of violence, some general hints of ominous undertones.   
> This was a commission for the wonderful marymay-fairgrave on tumblr <3

It was the third day through the mountains that Rook realised she was being watched. Going without cell-phone reception had been an honest relief, and the break that her new boss - the local Sheriff - had suggested had been refreshing.

It hadn’t been long, however, before the silence of the woods became ominous. 

She’d been hearing sounds in the far distance behind her for some time, but it wasn’t until she noticed they were getting closer that she felt something was very,  _ very _ wrong. Even worse was that she was another day out from crossing into Hope County; another night spent under the stars, and nestled in the dark with whoever was stalking her path. The thought of being isolated had once been tempting and peaceful. With her footsteps being dogged and faces watching from the treelines, however, it only reminded her of how very vulnerable she was. A rabbit to the creatures lying in wait.

It was also on the third day that she encountered Jacob Seed. 

The nearby footsteps in front of her had her fearing her pursuers had intercepted her, and it was with a racing heart that she rounded the bended path and came face to face with a bearded man; his overly large rifle aimed at her and painted an obnoxious red. His eyes narrowed as he met the end of her own handgun, because it might’ve just been a planned leisure hike, but she wasn’t exactly silly, herself. 

They were frozen for a moment, standing opposite and waiting for the other’s move. 

“So,” Rook said, to break the silence, “you gonna just hurry up and kill me, or are we still doing this fucking chase?” 

There was a beat, and his brow creased for a second. 

“You’re not them,” was all he said, lowering his gun. He gave her a once-over, taking in her hiking bag and clothes as she did the same back. There was something about him that was almost familiar, and she wasn’t sure it was a good thing.

She frowned, still not lowering her own weapon yet.

“Them?” Rook asked, referring to his words, even though a part of her already suspected the answer. 

He raised an eyebrow but jerked his head behind them, to the path where they both knew lurked something in wait. 

“You’ve seen them?” He asked, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that he was going to somehow judge her by the answer. 

She took a moment of staring at him carefully before she nodded slowly. 

“I think they’ve been following me for a day or so,” Rook admitted, mouth turning down at the thought. “I...don’t know what they want.” Her unspoken  _ but it’s nothing good _ rang between them. 

He hummed, and his eyes narrowed. She had the strangest sense in that moment that he was somehow frustrated. Perhaps at her presence, or the fact that she too was in danger. Something came over his expression, something almost protective as he appeared to come to a decision.

“We’d best get moving,” the man said, eyeing the path behind them. 

She nodded, not taking her gaze from him; something deep and instinctively primal inside her sending a flare in her mind that this man was just as capable of danger as her pursuers were, whether he was involved with them or not. 

“That’d be smart,” Rook replied, finally responding to him. She took a step forward, gesturing her head and wasn’t sure if she was relieved or tentative when he began to follow her; the two of them setting off along the trail. “Hope County’s about a day away.” 

“I know,” the man replied, gruff and unreadable, facing forward but his head was inclined to the side; an ear to the path behind them as he continued. “My brother’s ranch is closest. Trail can lead us there.” 

“You live in Hope County, too?” She asked, glancing up at him as she raised an eyebrow in polite interest, welcoming the distraction from the clawing nails of dread that had been dogging her all day. 

His lip twitched, and she had the vague sense that he wasn’t entirely comfortable with telling these things to a stranger. Not that she blamed him for it. 

“Brother runs a church,” was all he said, and he seemed to begrudge even that. 

She frowned, and her mouth fell open as she realised why he was familiar. His was one of four faces pinned to a special persons of interest board in the Sheriff’s station.

“You’re that cult guy,” she said, and immediately wanted to slap a hand over her blabbering mouth. It wasn’t exactly the best idea to be antagonising a strange man in the middle of an isolated trail when you were both being pursued. “Oh, shit, I mean”-

Surprisingly, he gave a grim laugh.

“Jacob,” he elaborated, mouth twitching underneath the patched red beard. “I run security.”  

“Oh,” she said, and shook her head. “Of course you do.” A thought occurred to her; the rogue Deputy clawing at her mind, and she stared pointedly at the large rifle in his hands. “That got a license?” 

He sighed.

“I don’t know,” he replied evenly. “Does it?” 

“You know that’s illegal, right?” She asked, incredulous and utterly green, given their circumstances. Rook physically felt her stomach clench as she cringed, hating how the words sounded in her own echo, and she wanted to take them back. 

He gave her a levelled sideways glance, unoffended and surprisingly not condescending; instead, it was something amused, a lion deigning to watch a mouse dance.

“Well, then arrest me officer,” Jacob replied, and Rook realised it was a very genuine offer. 

Her eyes narrowed into something resembling a glare; acutely aware of how very unwise it would be to try such an arrest in their present situation. 

A twig snapped in the distance, and she whipped her head upright; stiffening and beginning to turn when his voice interrupted her. 

“Don’t look,” he ordered, somehow a bark despite how low it was. She froze, the rabbit to the wolf, and he hummed as he gestured for her to keep walking. “Don’t run. It only makes the wolves give chase.” 

Her heart was facing, fists clenching as a beat of rage passed through her. 

“What are they even doing?” She muttered, following along beside him, and if she was walking closer to the man than she usually would have, it couldn’t be her fault. “Why are they here?” 

Jacob was silent for a moment. 

“They’re hunters,” he replied, voice low and laced with the slightest scorn. “And they’ve decided we’re their game.” 

“Then what the fuck’s taking them so long?” She hissed, frustrated and rightfully so. Her vacation was supposed to give a break; to let her get away from the stress of being thrown into a job that wasn’t the peaceful county gig she’d been expecting. 

Jacob stopped in his tracks, giving a quick glance up to the sky. She’d been noticing it too; the dimming light, only a hour or so before it would dip below the trees and create an entirely new ballpark. 

“They’re waiting,” he explained, and she understood. “Prodding at us, trying to make us rabbits in a cage.” He gave her a final, deliberate once-over and seemed to come to some sort of decision as he hummed; and she didn’t know whether the sound was approving or otherwise. His fingers rose to fiddle with something at his chest; a chain around his neck, hanging military tags, a rabbit’s foot and a strange, thin whistle. 

He smiled, and it made her shiver.

“But  _ we’re  _ not the rabbits,” Jacob continued, soft in a way she never knew could be menacing, as he drew the whistle up to his mouth. “Are we?” 

It wasn’t long after the whistle was blown that he ordered them to make camp. Rook had protested, saying that they should be trying to get away, to push through the trail until they got to safety, but the ex-military man had only given her that funny smile and told her it wouldn’t be wise to wander through the dark at night. 

“Who knows what monsters could be hiding out there?” He’d said, enjoying a private joke. 

She made her tent; not arguing when he said he’d take watch. Apparently, he believed there would only be need for one. Rook wasn’t complaining, but it wasn’t as though she expected to get any sleep. 

He wasn’t wrong; that primal instinct inside her made her acutely aware that there may be monsters prowling, but she wasn’t sure whether they were all in the darkness. 

It was as she finished setting out her sleeping bag that she saw he’d prepared a campfire. She choked on a gasp as she scrambled on her knees to the front of her tent, incredulously unzipping her fly screen to gape at him.

“Are you  _ insane? _ ” Rook hissed, gesturing to the firewood he was stacking to light. “Do you  _ want  _ them to find us?”

He sighed, easily kneeling to spark their fire, letting it merrily grow to life. 

“They know exactly where we are,” he argued, sitting back against a tree stump and watching her as she knelt on her sleeping bag. “Get some sleep; we’ve got an early start tomorrow.”

He let out a sigh as he angled towards her, and despite her unease, she took note of how his position had her tucked away behind him; between the rock and himself, as though he was preparing to be the barrier between her and whatever wandered up the path. 

She didn’t move, the suspicion that had been needling at her all day coming to the forefront. 

“You seem to know an awful lot about them,” Rook ventured quietly, tilting her head as she stared at him from within her tent. 

He didn’t look at her for a moment, but she saw as his lip quirked.

“A hunter knows a hunter,” Jacob replied, soft in his cadence. Without fully turning his head, his eyes flicked to hers, a steady side glance as he continued, “but you’re right. Well done, detective.” 

“ _ Deputy _ ,” she corrected, out of habit, and then flushed at his bark of laughter.

She cleared her throat, and glared at him; trying to regain some ground. 

“What do you know, Seed?” She asked, but her voice was low. She wasn’t  _ really  _ asking. 

He hummed, eyes returning to watch the path; appearing languid but somehow still alert. 

“They’re well known next town over,” Jacob explained, resting his rifle against his legs as he watched. “Made up of a few families, all go hunting through these parts every weekend.  _ Started  _ with boar.” 

She didn’t need to ask what they moved on to.

“Locals had some trouble with them,” Jacob continued, and quirked his eyebrow. “My brother decided it might be worth sending me to... _ test _ them. Didn’t expect you to be here.” That same flicker of frustration came over his expression again, and she didn’t miss the way he shifted to angle his body almost protectively towards her. “Don’t worry; you’ve got nothing to worry about.”

Rook scoffed under her breath. 

“ _ Right _ ,” she nodded, unconvinced and not understanding everything he’d meant. She frowned and shook her head, trying to piece it together. “Sorry, but when exactly are you planning to... ‘test’ them?”    
Jacob smiled, and it wasn’t a nice smile. 

“Already am.” His fingers tapped twice against his rifle, the movement jostling his dog tags against the rabbit’s foot and the strange whistle he’d used earlier. “And they’re failing.” 

The night was restless, driving her awake with the eerie sounds of the night; something shifting through the hours as she watched Jacob Seed remain resolute but inexplicably calm by the fireside as the silence was continuously broken. 

The piercings calls through the wooded trail belonged to no cougar. 

Rook didn’t say a word. Not as her companion sat angled to the side keeping her behind him, safe in her tent, while the monsters took their dues. It was near midnight when she joined him by the fireside, chilled from the cool air, and she sat with her chin resting on her tucked knees; acutely aware of the heat of the man at her side slowly seeping into her. 

As the silence fell on the trail, she felt the exhaustion weigh on her. 

“You can sleep,” Jacob murmured, leaning his head back against the tree stump. “You’re safe.” She wondered why the unspoken  _ with me _ made her feel more reassured. Leaning against his side cautiously, she almost expected him to push her back. He did no such thing; letting her stay with her forehead pressed to his upper arm, hearing a faint beat and the movement of each breath.

Rook dozed off to the sound of his humming an old-timey song she couldn’t place.

The morning came after the limbo of the night, and she still said nothing as they packed their camp and crossed into Hope County, leaving the heady stench of the trail behind them. 

John Seed awaited his brother in the driveway, giving Rook a thorough stare.

“Brother,” he greeted the older man cautiously, giving her a pointed glance despite the welcoming smile. “Did you find what you were looking for?” 

There was a beat of silence and Jacob met her eyes.

Rook rose to the challenge, a flash of tired fury making her refuse to look away from him; matching the wolf eye to eye, a predator in her own right and it was time she was acknowledged. 

“Yes,” Jacob finally said, mouth twitching as he broke the stare, and she felt the thrill of victory. “I did.”

“I see,” John replied, and cleared his throat, nodding at her. “I understand my brother’s manners may have certainly been lacking, but do you need me to arrange anything for you, dear?” He smiled, flashing a canine; somehow no less dangerous than his older brother. “A ride, perhaps?” 

Rook listened to her instincts once more. 

“No.” She shook her head, and barely had the courtesy to smile. “I’ll be fine. Thanks.” 

For a moment, she wondered if Jacob Seed wanted to keep her for a few seconds longer, but he said nothing as she gave him a nod and went on her way; trailing down the drive with a careful fervency even as she felt him watching her go. 

She cut across the fields, keeping her footsteps steady as she felt the looming eyes on her back; tempting her across the distance to turn and take just one look, to meet the beast in the eye and name him; Orpheus lulled by Eurydice’s lure at his back.

_ Don’t look _ , she remembered.  _ Don’t run. It only makes the wolves give chase. _

Rook was done with wolves for one day.

It wasn’t until the Ryes had opened their doors and brought her into the warmth of their living room, that she let herself look behind her. There was a car, a pale off-white truck rumbling to the road headed north.

“Anything interesting, Dep?” Nick asked, coming to her side and handing her the drink she’d nearly begged for. 

She hummed softly, turning to smile at him, even if it didn’t quite reach her eyes. 

“Nothing,” she said, leaving the window. 

It was only in the evening, when Kim had given her the spare room to rest, that she allowed herself to think of the night before. Of the unnerving eyes of Jacob Seed as he’d stared into the fire, whistle clinking against his rifle as he’d remained unmoved to the ominous calls of the would-be hunters through the trees.

And of the quirk of his smile as the silence gave way to the howling of wolves in the night.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! <3


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